79-year-old woman claims she was harassed by callers

Relentless network

She came from a small town in Utah and never went to college. She was not business savvy, he said, and instead focused on raising a family. Her husband died in 2008, and Davis suspects she got lonely. Growing up in a simpler time made her more trusting, he added. The woman says the fraud started a short while after she played a game in a catalog, which invited readers to call a number for a chance at a $100 prize. Somehow, she ended up with several magazine subscriptions, including Forbes, even though she says now she wasn’t interested in them.

“That was the beginning,” she said. The crooks had her name, her phone number and her address. That’s when the sweepstakes letters started. First she was eligible to win half a million dollars. Quickly, the amounts grew:

“A sum of $1,781,200.00 … in cash and prize opportunities has been released by third party sponsors and are currently unclaimed,” one letter began. It urged her to act quickly: “Some or all prize opportunities could go to somebody else, be forfeited or expired if you fail to respond shortly.” It even warned her not to fall prey to scammers: “Be aware of scams and fake reports as our $28 fee is the only fee to be paid.”

She sent a small amount at first, but the scammers kept raising the ante or requesting additional funds in order to process her prize. Between Sept. 17 and Oct. 3, records and receipts show she wired more than $98,000 to several recipients, most of them believed to be in the Philippines.

This was a fee-for-prize scam, which Greenwood called “a classic.” Victims are offered cash or another award, in exchange for paying a fee to redeem it. The award never materializes, but by the time the victim realizes that, it’s too late.

Accountability lacking

Davis contacted the La Mesa police, the FBI, the District Attorney’s Office, and the county. He said the local police were “not very responsive,” and other agencies have urged him to be patient.

Lt. Matt Nicholass, ﻿spokesman with the La Mesa Police Department, said these crimes are hard to investigate.

He offered this advice: “If somebody won something, they should not have to pay money to receive that gift. If someone is asking for money in advance, there’s usually a problem involved.”

Wire transfer services are not obligated to report suspected financial crimes like banks are, but a new state law this year requires them to educate their employees about elder abuse.

Greenwood went to Washington in November to push for a task force dedicated to elder fraud. He said that without a joint effort, it is challenging to get agencies “to invest time in tracing these calls and tracing where the money has gone.”

The La Mesa woman now has an estate lawyer and a financial trustee from her church, helping her handle what’s left of her personal property. She has stopped answering the scammers’ calls and she knows better than to trust the award letters, which have trickled to one or two per day.

She offered these words of caution: “If they ask for money, just tear it up or tell them no. Don’t do it. … If it sounds too good to be true, it’s not true. Don’t give any money. Hang up.”